Guillaume Rouillé

Guillaume Rouillé was one of the most prominent humanist bookseller-printers in 16th-century Lyon. He is credited with the invention of the pocket book format called the sextodecimo. Rouillé published many works of history and poetry as well as medicine, in addition to his useful compilations and handbooks.

Rouillé was a native of Tours, but served his apprenticeship in the Venetian printing house of Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari. Around 1543 he arrived in Lyon where he started his own printing house. Among his more notable works is the French translation of Andrea Alciato's pioneering emblem book, Emblemata, a collection of short Latin verse texts and accompanying woodcuts. His other notable work of iconography was Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum, a compilation of 950 medal-like portraits followed by a brief biography. The portraits begin with Adam and Eve.

Rouillé’s printer’s mark was an eagle displayed atop a globe on a pedestal, flanked by serpents with knotted tails.